Four specific characteristics of Christian manhood which you are to bring to God as your proper worship are recorded in the second chapter of Genesis. These characteristics are to be blended into your everyday worship of God in adoration, obedience, and service.
To worship God properly, you must be a provider, a protector, a teacher, and you are to connect.
Godly Men are Called to be Providers as Servant Kings
Genesis 2:15. The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.(NIV). Godly men are called and redeemed by Jesus Christ to be providers. This was God’s original intent, but when Adam fell, sin distorted the way in which men think and live. Our understanding of ourselves and our purpose in God’s world is distorted.
Some men no longer understand that the nature of a godly man is to be a provider, and that the true nature of providing is found in caring deeply. Christian men find it too easy to be passive in the home and the Church. Seeing themselves as being too busy, they let others do what needs to be done, regardless of who those others may be. They forget that they are to be providers according to the biblical model.
Godly men are to provide because they care deeply. When they don’t, sin works to make them forget their call to be providers. The results of that sin are disorder, chaos, dysfunction, and oppression— consequences which become apparent in the family and in the Church.
Therefore, reaffirm that to which God has appointed you. Recognize that He has commissioned you first of all to be a provider. Recognize that as a consequence you are called to produce order, not disorder. Men are to be pillars that enable familial dysfunction to be corrected. Men are to be gentle, not oppressive. Godly men cannot be passive; they are to be the leaders in the home and the Church.
Godly Men are Called to be Protectors as Tender Warriors
Genesis 2:17 ”..but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."(NIV). Godly men are called to protect the Gospel, and to contend for that truth in the home and the Church. Most men however, do not see themselves as protectors and defenders. As a man, you are charged with guarding God’s truth. Always remember Paul’s admonition to Timothy to guard the Gospel because it was always being attacked.
When men fail to contend for the truth, the Church becomes afraid to exercise godly discipline. Men know that there are serious moral problems in the Church, but they too often find ways to turn aside so that they will not have to become involved. Problems come to be seen as private issues into which one should not intrude, or they are seen as too dangerous in which to become involved.
And just as bad, there are those who, when they do contend for the truth, become contentious, thus making everyone’s life a misery. Such men take one truth and make it the key to understanding everything else in God’s world. There is an enormous breadth to the Gospel. Don’t become obsessive about one part and inevitably become contentious. As a godly man, you must defend the truth and defend it well.
Godly Men are Called to be Teachers as Wise Mentors
Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; Genesis 2:17..but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."(NIV) Godly men are to be mentors who communicate the Gospel. God has given this responsibility to men, and when they will not accept it, there is no discipline in the home or in the Church. When men do not take seriously their responsibility for teaching, the result is a spiraling down in the understanding of the Word. The Church then gravitates to that one thing which is not costly, the enjoyment of one another in fellowship. Uncommitted to the Gospel, such a church becomes a group of people who just like to be together, eventually becoming a self-affirming society. While these churches might seem like nice places to go, they fail to grow, because the environment which they have created does not provoke thought, repentance, obedience, and discipline. Such churches go to sleep and enter into very real danger before they realize it. Recognize that godly men are called to teach and to be mentors of the Word of God.
Godly Men are Called to Connect as Faithful Friends
Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."(NIV) Godly men are to connect with each other because they are called to fellowship. God said, “It is not good that man should be alone.” The moment men find themselves out of fellowship with one another, they become islands unto themselves. They become unavailable. They come to think that they are able to do and get what they need on their own. Inevitably they become distorted in their thinking about others, about the events in their lives, about their ministry, and about God Himself. This will happen to you if you think you can sit on a solitary perch and watch as the world goes by.
When men do not connect, the result is lofty silence. This is often translated into the Church where there may be the appearance of fellowship, but in reality, there is no substance. Test yourself. When you are in difficulty and struggling, to whom do you go? Most probably, in silent isolation, you search out a professional rather that go to those with whom you are in fellowship.
When men don’t trust, when they are not committed to one another, there can be no real substance in their fellowship and they will not walk together in the Lord. When the biblical model is lost, who we are, what we do, and how we do it are profoundly impacted. Personal isolation, emotional detachment from others, and sometimes illicit sensuality are the result.
Being solitary and apart is not what Scripture requires of men. Men are made to connect with each other; they are to walk together as brothers, which is the way in which God has made them.
CONCLUSION
You have been converted by a wonderful God, a mighty, glorious, heavenly King, but you also live in the midst of an ultimately evil age. Within this age, the temptation of men is to trivialize what they bring to God in worship. They ignore the model of the godly man which has been given in Scripture, and by ignoring that model, they bring that which is less than God’s requirement. Worship is eventually reduced to simple solutions.
When men fail to provide, disorder and chaos result, and the energy which God has given men to care deeply is broken. When men fail to protect the truth, fear and abuse, cruelty and hatred become the distortion of the picture of the protector. When men fail to teach and mentor, discipline disappears, personal maturity suffers, and Scripture is ultimately disregarded and spiritual insensitivity sets in.
But as a man living in the sight of God, you are to work out and live the characteristics of the godly man which you are to bring to God as your true worship of Him.
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